Braves hammer Twins to complete series sweep

May 22, 2013 - 8:01 PM
Atlanta, GA (Sports Network) - Evan Gattis hit a grand slam and B.J. Upton had
a solo homer as part of a five-run fourth inning that helped the Atlanta
Braves down the slumping Minnesota Twins, 8-3, to complete a three-game
interleague sweep at Turner Field.

Ramiro Pena provided a solo shot, while Jason Heyward and Chris Johnson each
had two hits and drove in a run for the Braves, who have won six straight.

Atlanta has swept back-to-back three-game series against the Los Angeles
Dodgers and Twins.

"It's good to come in and win the amount of games we did, especially after the
road trip we came off," Upton said. "It's just good to win ball games all
together. It's still early, it's only getting close to the end of May and
there's a lot of baseball left to be played."

Paul Maholm (6-4) tossed 7 1/3 innings and allowed one unearned run and seven
hits with four strikeouts.

Justin Morneau drove in one run and Aaron Hicks and Oswaldo Arcia each hit
solo homers in the ninth for the Twins, losers of eight straight. Starter
Vance Worley (1-5) allowed all eight runs on 10 hits over just 3 2/3 innings
to absorb the loss.

"It is what it is," added Worley, who was optioned to Triple-A Rochester
following the game. "I went out there and I left the ball up a little bit. ERA
is killing me. It's hard to win a game if you're behind. Just work on being
myself, get back to what I was doing and I'll be back."

Atlanta opened up the scoring early, as Worley struggled with the initial
three batters he faced. Jordan Schafer drew a leadoff walk and Pena followed
with a single before Heyward made it a 1-0 game with a run-scoring line-drive
single to center.

The hosts added two more runs in the third. Pena smacked a homer down the
right-field line with one down and after Worley plunked Heyward and Gattis in
between a Freddie Freeman strikeout, Johnson delivered an RBI single.

The Braves then broke open the contest in the fourth, thanks to the long ball.

Upton smacked a leadoff homer to left-center, his fourth of the season, to
make it 4-0, but the inning was far from over. Later in the frame, Heyward hit
an infield single and Freeman drew a two-out walk to load the bases. Gattis
then clubbed Worley's 3-0 offering down the right-field line for an opposite-
field grand slam and 8-0 Atlanta lead.

Morneau put the Twins on the board in the sixth with a two-out RBI single,
while both Hicks' and Arcia's solo shots in the ninth came off Atlanta
reliever Cory Rasmus.

Game Notes

Minnesota placed third baseman Trevor Plouffe on the 7-day concussion disabled
list prior to Wednesday's game, selected the contract of first baseman Chris
Colabello from Triple-A Rochester and transferred outfielder Darin Mastroianni
to the 60-day disabled list ... The Braves improved to 15-5 at Turner Field
this season ... Atlanta leads the all-time regular-season series, 7-5 ...
Maholm has won all his starts this season when being backed by at least two
runs ... Minnesota has lost eight games in a row for the first time since an
11-game slide from Sept. 9-21, 2011.